Frederick II, of the House of Hohenstaufen and King of Sicily, took an extraordinary step when he started minting gold coins in 1231. This is because, for many centuries, the Christian West had been shaped purely by silver currency. Frederick II’s gold coins, called augustales, were something special: the quality of the image and their embossing are unique for their time. Augustales are extraordinary coins minted by an extraordinary ruler.

Constans was the youngest son of Constantin I the Great. He was only a boy when his father accorded him the rank of Caesar (emperor-designate). With the death of Constantin I in 337, his three sons Constantin II, Constantius II and Constans adopted the title of Augustus and divided the empire amongst themselves.

In the Middle Ages, the Republic of Venice was a significant trading and naval power. Venice was the capital of a far-flung territory. The areas under the control of the lagoon city included a thin strip on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, parts of modern Greece, Crete and other islands in the Aegean.

Ein digitaler Euro könnte nicht nur den Zahlungsverkehr stärken, sondern auch unser tägliches Leben vereinfachen, betonte Bundesbankvorstand Burkhard Balz in einer Rede zum Projekt „Digitaler Euro" bei der Hauptverwaltung der Bundesbank in Bremen, Niedersachsen und Sachsen-Anhalt. Der Trend zum Bargeld sei rückläufig, während die Nachfrage nach digitalen Zahlungsmitteln ansteige. Der Fokus des digitalen Zentralbankgeldes liege auf den Bedürfnissen und Anforderungen der Bürgerinnen und Bürger, während Schutzmechanismen für Stabilität und Privatsphäre sorgten.

Constans was the youngest son of Constantin I the Great. He was only a boy when his father accorded him the rank of Caesar (emperor-designate). With the death of Constantin I in 337, his three sons Constantin II, Constantius II and Constans adopted the title of Augustus and divided the empire amongst themselves.

Im zweiten Quartal 2023 erhöhte sich der Bestand an von finanziellen Mantelkapitalgesellschaften/Verbriefungszweckgesellschaften (FMKGs) im Euroraum begebenen Schuldverschreibungen auf 1 783 Mrd. € nach 1 741 Mrd. € im Vorquartal.

Im ersten Quartal 2023 belief sich der Bestand an von Investmentfonds (ohne Geldmarktfonds) begebenen Anteilen auf 15 302 Mrd. € und war damit um 304 Mrd. € höher als im ersten Quartal 2023.

Below you will find brochures with further pieces from our collection.

The Byzantine Empire was one of the most significant and powerful states in the Middle Ages. It emerged from the eastern part of the Roman Empire, which was split into two in AD 395. The modern name "Byzantine Empire" is derived from the ancient Greek city of Byzantium. The Byzantines, however, considered themselves Roman. Constantinople, now Istanbul, was the capital of their empire. Its namesake, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great (306-337), refounded the city on the site of Byzantium.

The guineas were introduced in 1663 and remained the principal British gold coin up until 1816. They came into being in the aftermath of the English Civil War (1642–1649). During the war, England was declared a free commonwealth but the English Republic lasted less than 20 years.

When Parisians stormed the Bastille on 14 July 1789, the face of Europe was changed forever. At this time, France was ruled by Louis XVI, king by divine right. He reigned in the tradition of the Sun King Louis XIV and exercised almost absolute power. The country was in turmoil. Large swaths of the population were impoverished while the nobility enjoyed a life of excess. It was on that fateful day that tensions erupted.

Kirstin Hubrich explains the basics of financial stability and of this year’s Financial Stability Review.

The German financial system has weathered the exceptionally strong rise in interest rates well overall and has proved stable over the past months, the Bundesbank writes in its Financial Stability Review 2024. Credit risk is now increasingly coming under the spotlight, however. The financial system is facing acute challenges due to geopolitical tensions and a weak economy. The economy is also undergoing transformation, said Bundesbank Executive Board member Michael Theurer. Our top priority must be a resilient financial system.

Even though it was created in 1936, from today’s perspective "Die Sinnende" [The contemplative woman] appears as if the huge dislocations of the following decade were already being depicted in the portrait of this young woman

I dream of a social art, wrote Victor Vasarely as early as 1953 in his “Notes Brutes” [Rough notes]. The crowds, the masses, a multitude of beings, this is the new dimension. See the unlimited space, the truth of structures. Art is the plastic aspect of the community.

The Research Data and Service Centre regularly matches Bundesbank company data to enable researchers to use linked microdata on companies (subject to approval of the respective research project).

A young woman with her dog looks out, keenly and slightly provocatively, from the sketched frame of a locket. Clearly based on a photograph, the portrait appears artificial and as from another age, mainly as a result of the distortion of colours.

The feeling of living in a world full of interchangeable personal narratives and uniform biographies is a commonplace in modernism. Not only is almost every region on earth characterised by identical consumer possibilities and choices; the general principles, aspirations, desires and dreams of humans across the globe have, moreover, long since been standardised by the pervasiveness of media communication.

A picture by Rupprecht Geiger provokes an immediate response: the force of the colour is well-nigh overpowering. This shade of red, which the artist intersperses time and again with hints of pink or orange, triggers associations of peril and passion.

Das Emissionsvolumen am deutschen Rentenmarkt belief sich im Juni 2023 auf brutto 168,7 Mrd € (Vormonat: 168,8 Mrd €). Nach Abzug der Tilgungen und unter Berücksichtigung der Eigenbestandsveränderungen der Emittenten wurden inländische Schuldverschreibungen für netto 22,9 Mrd € begeben.

There is no mistaking the heads of Horst Antes. Their stark profile and, above all, their schematic stylisation have become the artist’s trademark. They appear in Antes’ paintings as Kopffüssler [Head-and-foot figures] or in public spaces as large-scale steel sculptures.

Germany’s current account posted a surplus of €29.6 billion in June 2023, up €21.4 billion on the previous month’s level. This was because invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, switched to a surplus, and there was a larger surplus on the goods account.